This project is a result of TEDxYYC hosting Kirk Sorensen in Calgary finally breaking a chicken-and-egg problem... I couldn't convince Kirk to come to Calgary without a compelling engagement, and I couldn't arrange any lecture venues for Kirk without a commitment on his part. So thanks to TEDxYYC for making this happen.

2010-03-30

COSSFest 2010

Downloadable and Creative Commons licensed recyclable copies of the video coverage can be found on Internet Archive. (Anyone without full Flash support in their browser might need to access the lectures that way.)
But for YouTube hosted copies, I decided to experiment with YouTube Annotation Hyperlinks. They allow you to link from within one YouTube video to another. This allows me to show a brief summary of every event, and let the viewer click through if they would like to learn more.

2009-09-29

Video - Calgary's Low Carbon Future

On 2009-09-18, over 200 Calgarians gathered at SAIT to help advance Calgary's energy efficiency. In a future where the environmental costs of carbon are factored into economic decisions, how can an energy city like Calgary stay competitive?

Mayor of Calgary Dave Bronconnier points out our city is the largest consumer of renewable energy in Canada, and all city operations will be powered by renewable energy by 2012. Targeting the carbon footprint of City of Calgary's municipal operations will help keep our tax rates competitive as the cost of carbon starts to climb, but it does not guarantee our energy sector will continue to prosper.

Attendees brainstormed solutions in 5 categories:

"Energy Efficiency and Conservation"

"Energy Financing"

"Energy Awareness, Research and Training"

"Energy Sourcing / Renewable Energy Sources"

"Energy Legislation"

...which were then voted on. Top-ranked ideas were re-articulated by attendees in a manner to make them implementable and measurable.

Was it successful? Well it seemed good ideas were shared, and other than allowing more time for the teams to brainstorm and articulate I thought the exercises were extremely practical. It will be up to Calgarians, Imagine Calgary and PlanIt Calgary to see quantifiable results come of this.

I created an editorialized video which uses Skid Crease's themeweaving as narrative structure. It has been shortened to 56 minutes and is the easiest way for non-attendees to understand the summit. The video is called "Calgary's Low Carbon Future" and is available at R4NT.com.

I've isolated the meatiest presentation (by Rob Macintosh), documenting the challenge to Calgary's economy and how we can rapidly more to address it...

I also followed Elizabeth around between Calgary Stampede breakfasts, to collect some stock footage of her pancake flipping. Between Marborough Mall and Chinook Centre, a series of tweets were posted by concerned supporters, that Elizabeth was forgetting about animal rights for the sake of a photo op at a rodeo (she was not, in fact, attending the rodeo).

The interaction between Elizabeth and her daughter (Victoria Cate) was quite interesting as they spotted the tweets, and formulated a response. This led to a quick discussion about social media, her daughter's role in helping manage it, and how tools like Twitter and Facebook facilitate communication between candidates and their supporters.

2009-06-27

Video - Do It Yourself

Short created in 24 hours for Calgary's 2009 FilmRacing competition.
The is the same edit submitted to the competition, but rendered in HDV instead of SD (NTSC) resolution. Created by on-site team of Wil Knoll, Rachel Gertz, Gordon McDowell & Sarah Blue. Blaise Kolodychuk & Ben Blue (independently of each other) contributed music based solely on the script (as we had to keep everything possible running in parallel).
If you'd like to recycle any of the footage, a downloadable MPEG-4 1280x720 master can be found at Internet Archive.